Africa-Press – Ghana. As the October rains fall, the sunny days of July feel very far away. For Liverpool supporters, they have seemed particularly distant. On 30 July, Liverpool beat Manchester City 3-1 in the Community Shield. Darwin Nunez scored on his debut. Mohamed Salah tucked away a penalty. Erling Haaland missed a hatful of chances.
It was a game to fill all Reds fans with optimism. Yet, with Liverpool and City to meet on Sunday for the first time since that game, the optimism has taken a hammering.
Some positivity has returned following the 7-1 thrashing of Rangers at Ibrox which has put Liverpool in clear sight of the Champions League round of 16. Beating City on Sunday would almost fully restore it. Yet while Manchester City – and Haaland in particular – have picked up momentum as the season has progressed, Liverpool have largely gone backwards.
Liverpool were two wins from a historic quadruple in 2021-22. They were an Ilkay Gundogan double and a sliding Vinicius Junior from being the first English men’s team to lift all four major trophies available.
To come so close to immortality and fall just short would create a hangover for any team. But the dip Liverpool have suffered in the Premier League has been quite striking.
According to Opta, Liverpool’s shots per game in the league is down from 19.2 last season to 17.5 this term, while their xG (expected goals) per game has also dropped, from 2.6 to 1.8.
Yet it is not that their attack has been completely neutered – their average number of touches in the opposition box has gone up from 38.9 to 42.1 and the number of open-play crosses per game is also up from 15.6 to 16.4. This comes from an attack that was once so settled, but now showing signs of breaking apart piece by piece.
Sadio Mane departed for Bayern Munich. Salah, six-minute hat-trick in Glasgow aside, has not found the form of recent campaigns. Nunez is only now starting to settle since his debut goal, a red card against Crystal Palace not helping matters.
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